“If you’re going to be challenged to handle the ball in either very cold conditions or wet conditions, then having the ability to grab the ball and squeeze it, you’re going to have more of a chance to remain in contact with the ball,” he said.

Deflated balls could also mean faster balls thrown by quarterbacks. Because of the softer grip, the index finger remains on the football a tad longer, allowing for faster spirals during a throw, especially for quarterbacks who like to keep their fingers on the seams, Millen said.

“We know from having put a football in wind tunnels, the faster the ball rotates, the more it cuts through the air. It has less drag, therefore more velocity on the ball,” he said, adding later, “most quarterbacks like to have less air than more air.”

Millen — who presently works for a sporting goods company whose footballs are used by high schools and football camps according to their website — also spoke briefly about the culture of football tampering in the NFL.

In his years in the NFL, Millen said it was common for quarterbacks to ask for balls to be deflated, within the league’s acceptable range, if the footballs felt too hard for their preference. It takes just a couple of seconds to lose 2 pounds of air pressure after inserting a needle. A team equipment staffer could have been careless.

“I’ve seen somebody say, ‘Hey, stick a needle in there for a second just to get the air right,'” Millen said.

As I said, Millen hasn’t put on the pads in 20 years, but it doesn’t seem like players are any less likely to push for their preferences to be respected when it comes to the inflation level and feel of a game ball nowadays.

Now, I’m sure that, going forward, the league will pay closer attention to the condition of game balls and the chain of custody. But if this has been a widespread unacknowledged ritual within the game for years, and if Quarterbacks on both sides get to have their way with their footballs, then the “damage” is both incalculable and possibly moot to all but the purists. So, I suppose the question still is, “Does it really matter?”

See, this is where the NFL and Pats handling of this becomes laden with bullshit.

The act in and of itself violates a rule that proscribes a not uncommon practice basically deemed acceptable gamesmanship by most players.

So if it isn’t a big deal to the Pats, why haven’t they offered a sacrificial lamb yet?

Likewise, if enforcing a rule the NFL believes is important to protecting the integrity of the game is so important, why hasn’t the NFL acted yet, instead engaging in a Warren Commission-size investigation for something that ultimately isn’t that complicated.

Answer: the Pats never thought they’d get caught, never thought the governing body would care, but now that they have been caught, they REALLY don’t want to pay ANY price for having broken a rule. And the NFL really doesn’t want to have to punish the Pats in any meaningful sense for a rule and gameball practice they realize now they should revisit. But the timing couldn’t be worse for the NFL because:

A) It’s the Pats
B) It’s Superbowl week
C) The NFL as an organization has looked flatfooted all year

So for purely PR reasons everybody is going to shuffle their feet, delay and dissemble, then rely on the charisma of the game and short attention span of the media. All for an issue that isn’t an issue because neither the NFL and the Pats want punishment despite the fact that a rule was broken and no other reasonable explanation exists.

In a way, this is kind of similar to the Michael Pineda thing with the pine tar last season. Everyone acknowledges that baseball players use a little something to get a better hold of the ball in cold weather, but Pineda was sloppy with it, so everyone had to make a big thing out of it.

Wait so everyone does it…and Pats get caught. They get labeled as a cheater etc etc…will most likely get punished for it while everyone else almost undoubtedly agrees that they do the same thing…Where have we seen this before? *ahem* spygate *ahem*